Helisa Cruz: On gun violence in DC, where are our elected officials when we need them?
On July 19, Ahkii Washington-Scruggs, a 17-year-old high school football player about to enter his senior year at Dunbar High School, was found shot and killed alongside his father in their apartment in Northeast DC. Their deaths were two of nine homicides within five days due to gun violence.
Not long before his death, Washington-Scruggs wrote a poem called I’m From. This is the first stanza:
I’m from a city full of hate
In D.C., it’s nothing but people trying to take your life away
I’m from a city where it’s a blessing
to see the age of 20
Where I’m from you get killed over stupid stuff
such as clothes and shoes
Every day I hear out of town people say D.C. is so great
But in my head, I just say D.C. is full of hate.
It breaks my heart to sit here and agree with the sentiments in this poem.
It breaks my heart that Ahkii himself did not see 20.
It breaks my heart because I’m 17, too, just like Ahkii.
Ahkii is just one of many young people who lost their lives far too soon. I hate that gun violence claims so many young lives in this city because DC’s Chocolate City culture is so beautiful. Ahkii is also correct that outsiders see only the monuments, politics, museums and universities — not DC’s true culture.
They don’t see our youth dying — and even if they did, who’s to say they’d care. No amount of gentrification or over-policing will answer why this hate exists in our communities or what we can do to stop it.
Mayor Muriel Bowser and our elected officials on the DC Council need to address the underlying issues by fully funding programs that would address youth trauma, providing intervention against gun violence without police involvement, and creating spaces for art and other forms of expression.
There is no doubt in my mind that there are adults in DC willing and able to support youth in the fight against gun violence. Police Chief Peter Newsham says people should start sharing information with police before it’s too late. For this to occur, however, there needs to be solid trust between communities and police that currently doesn’t exist. DC communities of color are aware of what can happen when someone who looks like them appears to be carrying a weapon. They see violence projected from law enforcement, whether it be the Metro Transit Police or DC’s police department.
Newsham calls for harsher consequences when one is caught with an illegal firearm. Yet, what is DC doing now to reduce illegal gun trafficking? Before we prolong sentencing for possession of firearms, are we doing everything possible to prevent these guns from flowing into our communities from adjacent Maryland and Virginia?
In 2018, 125 of DC’s 160 homicides occurred due to gun violence, according to a Washington Post database. So far in 2019, 80 of DC’s 100 homicides are the result of gun violence. At age 17, I have friends and family members who have lost people they love to gun violence before the victims ever reached the age of 20. This should not be the case — especially because DC has strict gun laws. At its roots, the gun violence that plagues our city stems from what is going on within our communities.
Those of us in the gun violence prevention movement know that we must focus on how to stop gun violence before it happens, but we need the police chief and our elected officials to acknowledge this as well. Once a life is lost, it’s gone forever. No harsh punishment will bring a life back; by investing in the community, however, elected officials can save lives.
Why do I work so hard in the gun violence prevention movement? It’s because I think of the friends who have cried in my arms because of a deceased friend or family member. I think of my cousins who are Afro-Latinx and worry that one day I might get a call about one of them, too. I didn’t wait to get involved until it was too late or when it directly affected me — that’s not activism; that’s selfishness. I wanted to stop seeing social media posts about people my age not because of an accomplishment but because their lives were taken by a gun.
As the high school outreach director for March for Our Lives DC, I recruit members to lobby Congress to make sure everyone’s voice and story is heard.
Every day, I meet strong, intelligent youth through my work in the gun violence prevention movement. Their commitment to this issue makes me hopeful for the future. This violence will stop — not only in DC, but throughout the nation. First let’s start with our city.
Helisa Cruz, a resident of Brookland and a student at BASIS DC Public Charter School, is the high school outreach director for March for Our Lives DC.
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